# The old days



## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

I went golfing yesterday and the starter was an old drinkin buddy of mine, he's in his 70s. He always has a cigar in his mouth. He was telling me how he orders from ci now. Like he discovered a secret.lol

I handed him a couple cc partis. He told me he had a buddy that used to deal in foreign cars and would have boxes shipped with car parts from England. He asked me how I got mine..I told him I hit "submit order"..lol..he was amazed.. He was even more amazed, that if they get snatched at customs ,they resend.

Back in the day before online purchases how did guys get em?..besides the usual "everybody's got a cousin in Miami" to quote Jimmy Buffett..

Of course I'm don't want any one naming sources or even coming close to doing so.if you think it's close just skip it..
Just crazy stories about getting your favorite smokes. 

Did you have to actually go through all the crap my buddy was talking about to get em? Sounds like alot of cloak and dagger crap to get smokes with no guarantee. 

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## JohnnyFlake (May 31, 2006)

Until 2001, I use to live in Elmwood Park, IL. which is a suburb of Chicago. In the 70s & 80s, every now and again, a few of us would drive up to a Casino that was in Windsor Canada for a weekend. CCs were very reasonable in Canada back then. There were a couple of different Cigar Shops in the area. Buy a bunch and drive back home.

Also, during that time period, I had a few living relatives, in Italy. In the early 60s, I visited them for 6 weeks. One was a Doctor (surgeon) and one owned a Vineyard in Florence. Every now & again they, would get a bunch, for me and mail them.


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## Champagne InHand (Sep 14, 2015)

Canadian tobacco shops or while out of the country. 

The internet is both a blessing and a curse. 

However in our lifetime it's the biggest thing that has really changed daily life. Even more so than social media though that's probably second on the list. 


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

In 1969 our family friend who was Cuban would get me what I wanted....from 1990 I had friends who were in the Cigar Business...owners of B&M's and they had contacts and I could get whatever I wanted and since then I was given names of those who are with certain sources that I've developed over the years and we trade emails as far as my orders are concerned. They keep one cigar out of each box for their trouble of ensuring I get what I want and this is how I've done it for a couple of decades.


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## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

I've always done a lot of international travel, and would buy boxes overseas.

But there was an interesting time, pre Internet, when I would make overseas purchases through a source. This involved being referred, making an international call, and faxing my credit card.


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## JohnnyFlake (May 31, 2006)

bpegler said:


> I've always done a lot of international travel, and would buy boxes overseas.
> 
> But there was an interesting time, pre Internet, when I would make overseas purchases through a source. This involved being referred, making an international call, and faxing my credit card.


This reminds me that I did this as well, in the 90s for a few years. I was introduced to a source, and then would order by phone & credit card. I only purchased 4 or 5 boxes that way and after a few years, the phone number went bad. I never made contact again. Even the person who introduced me could not reach them.


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## Gummy Jones (Mar 30, 2017)

you crazy guys fly around the world to find a good cigar?
i have always been able to find my favorite white owls at the local gas stations.
do they make ccs with a wooden tip or are they not that fancy?


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## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

Gummy Jones said:


> you crazy guys fly around the world to find a good cigar?
> 
> i have always been able to find my favorite white owls at the local gas stations.
> 
> do they make ccs with a wooden tip or are they not that fancy?


1950s White Owl. Made with Cuban short filler. Until the 1960s, almost all the machine made cheap cigars were made with Cuban tobacco.

These were Clear Havanas.

So yes, once upon a time, there were Cuban White Owls sold in gas stations.


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## UBC03 (Nov 18, 2015)

bpegler said:


> 1950s White Owl. Made with Cuban short filler. Until the 1960s, almost all the machine made cheap cigars were made with Cuban tobacco.
> 
> These were Clear Havanas.
> 
> So yes, once upon a time, there were Cuban White Owls sold in gas stations.


So that's a 60 year old white owl.. Who woulda thunk it..lol

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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

bpegler said:


> 1950s White Owl. Made with Cuban short filler. Until the 1960s, almost all the machine made cheap cigars were made with Cuban tobacco.
> 
> These were Clear Havanas.
> 
> So yes, once upon a time, there were Cuban White Owls sold in gas stations.


Lol....how's that for some history?


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## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

UBC03 said:


> So that's a 60 year old white owl.. Who woulda thunk it..lol
> 
> Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk


It also answers the question: cellophane on.


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## Gummy Jones (Mar 30, 2017)

bpegler said:


> 1950s White Owl. Made with Cuban short filler. Until the 1960s, almost all the machine made cheap cigars were made with Cuban tobacco.
> 
> These were Clear Havanas.
> 
> So yes, once upon a time, there were Cuban White Owls sold in gas stations.


the lack of a wood tip makes it a no go for me


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## Ranger0282 (Mar 12, 2016)

I just do like my ex-wife................... Find a street corner somewhere and beg..


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

Gummy Jones said:


> the lack of a wood tip makes it a no go for me


One of the reasons why I loved the Hav A Tampas back in the day....I'd still smoke em if they were at any drug stores.


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## Alrightdriver (May 2, 2017)

Cigary said:


> One of the reasons why I loved the Hav A Tampas back in the day....I'd still smoke em if they were at any drug stores.


The hav a tampas were probably one of the first i ever smoked age 11 or 12. Stole one of dad's.

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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

My Dad and I were partners in a rep group in the wholesale Christmas decorations trade, mainly representing other importers. But in the early 1990's we started doing some of our own importing as well and would take regular buying trips to Hong Kong; once or twice a year we'd go together. My Dad was a cigar smoker too, and we'd hit the cigar shops first thing to stock up for the week or so we'd be there.

I would normally buy a box of Cubans while I was there to bring back and had never had a problem going through Customs. But on one trip I decided to ramp it up and had 5 or 6 boxes in my luggage. Well, wouldn't you know, that was the time I got the dreaded check mark going through immigration (before you get to the luggage carousel), which meant I'd been flagged for luggage inspection.

Not sure if it was random, or I just looked devious, but it was probably because I'd declared a watch I bought for my wife. And I went into a panic! My Dad calmly gathered up our bags, unzipped the one I had the cigars in, and stuffed them into his. He hadn't been flagged and he waltzed right through inspection without being checked while I spent 45-minutes having my bags ripped apart and every pair of dirty underwear laid out for all to see. I think they decided I was lying about what I'd paid for the watch, which I wasn't, and hit me with $20 or $30 duty on it.

I never got dinged for inspection again, but it still took me several more trips before I tried bringing Cubans back with me again; and when I did it was always just a single box. I figured with one box I could play dumb, say they were a gift and that I had no idea cigars were illegal. My line was going to be _"Cuban? How would I know they were Cuban. I don't smoke those nasty things."_ But I never had to use it and eventually we closed up shop due to my Dad's health and a declining market.

I started up another company in a different product line, but the manufacturing was done in Taiwan and Cuban's were HTF and expensive there at the time. So, though I might pick up a few to smoke while there, by then I'd already discovered safer and cheaper ways of acquiring them.

I do still miss Hong Kong though. Especially the way it was before the Brits gave it back to China... custom tailored suits in fine English wool for less than a half-decent off-the-rack here, exemplary service even in moderately priced hotels, great food, shops selling real Swiss watches at 40%-50% off on every street corner, and a lot fun haggling for just about everything you bought... and mostly very polite people.


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## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

curmudgeonista said:


> My Dad and I were partners in a rep group in the wholesale Christmas decorations trade, mainly representing other importers. But in the early 1990's we started doing some of our own importing as well and would take regular buying trips to Hong Kong; once or twice a year we'd go together. My Dad was a cigar smoker too, and we'd hit the cigar shops first thing to stock up for the week or so we'd be there.
> 
> I would normally buy a box of Cubans while I was there to bring back and had never had a problem going through Customs. But on one trip I decided to ramp it up and had 5 or 6 boxes in my luggage. Well, wouldn't you know, that was the time I got the dreaded check mark going through immigration (before you get to the luggage carousel), which meant I'd been flagged for luggage inspection.
> 
> ...


My good friend Bill lived in Hong Kong while it was under British rule. Visited him a few times in 25 or so years polite is an understatement. And i think there was not a fake cigar in the whole country. We used to joke around spitting on the street was a crime. Selling a fake Cuban was probably punishable by death. :vs_laugh:


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## Bird-Dog (Oct 16, 2009)

TonyBrooklyn said:


> My good friend Bill lived in Hong Kong while it was under British rule. Visited him a few times in 25 or so years polite is an understatement. And i think there was not a fake cigar in the whole country. We used to joke around spitting on the street was a crime. Selling a fake Cuban was probably punishable by death. :vs_laugh:


I did run into some fake Cubans, but only in street-side stores. Most good ones are in hotels and there's no doubt of authenticity there.

And it's pretty open with everything else. But, it's always some guy approaching you as you walk down the sidewalk asking if you want to buy a fake Rolex. To their credit, they are upfront about tings being fakes. And you never see fake stuff out in the open in the shops. But it's there in breadth of variety and quantity under the counter or in some back-alley stall. It's just that they don't make fake Cuban cigars in China. So, even though I saw a few, they were side-by-side with real ones and the retail vendor probably didn't know they were fake.

And, yes, spitting on the sidewalk, or littering, actually will get you a ticket; at least in the main areas of the city and Kowloon. Probably not the case out in the somewhat slumy residential and industrial areas. Same thing in major cities in China like Shanghai and Beijing. But get outside the city and the Chinese can be just as big pigs as some of our own.


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## Fusion (Apr 5, 2017)

The best hotel in my Northern England town of birth had a real nice restaurant, my first wife and i would go there for special occasions.
They also sold CC's, i remember buying them way back then, one was nearly as much money as the meal, Monte, H Upmann and Punch are the ones i remember, probably why those were what i was drawn to a few months ago when i started here lol. Not CC though.


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## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

Gummy Jones said:


> you crazy guys fly around the world to find a good cigar?
> i have always been able to find my favorite white owls at the local gas stations.
> do they make ccs with a wooden tip or are they not that fancy?


We travel because we need the excuse to do so and then buy cigars abroad...there is method to our madness. I've traveled to the north of Spain to buy cigars because of this link....http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/vb/travel-forum/161455-spain-cigars.html

Notice that Bpegler said....*.Spain is also the number one importer of cigars from Habanos SA.

You will be visiting cigar heaven. Please post some pictures when you get back!*

As soon as I read that I started making plans to revisit Spain...Barcelona, Cartegena, Malaga, Madrid and that northern portion where it is so beautiful...and the wine country and on into Andorra.....makes me want to go back for a 4th time.


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## Engineer99 (Aug 4, 2011)

When I used to go on tour with bands, we would always head to Canada for a few shows. I would grab singles where I could and occasionally the duty free shop.


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## WABOOM (Oct 15, 2015)

bpegler said:


> 1950s white owl. Made with cuban short filler. Until the 1960s, almost all the machine made cheap cigars were made with cuban tobacco.
> 
> These were clear havanas.
> 
> So yes, once upon a time, there were cuban white owls sold in gas stations.


that's awesome !!!


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## George007 (Sep 28, 2015)

With Cuban Cigars I always go by the "Don't ask don't tell policy"


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## Gummy Jones (Mar 30, 2017)

Cigary said:


> We travel because we need the excuse to do so and then buy cigars abroad...there is method to our madness. I've traveled to the north of Spain to buy cigars because of this link....http://www.cigarforums.net/forums/vb/travel-forum/161455-spain-cigars.html
> 
> Notice that Bpegler said....*.Spain is also the number one importer of cigars from Habanos SA.
> 
> ...


i have been many places but not spain. it has certainly been on my short list.


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